By: Syed Shahzaib Haider
If you are in business whether you are working on behalf of a small company, a globe spanning corporation or it’s your own entrepreneurial venture.
The past masters say things like, “You should focus. Commit to one thing and become exceptional at that thing.”
To me it’s a very considerable advice. The more I study successful people from all walks of life such as artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, scientists. The more I believe focus is a core factor of success in any business.
After giving thought to this advice there is a query that comes into my mind.
Having many possibilities in front of you, how do you know what to focus on? How do you know where to put all your energies and attention? How do you determine that yes this one thing is completely doable for me?
I don’t say that I have all the answers, but I must share what I’ve learned so far.
Learning from many errors I have come to the conclusion: “Try things until something comes without a hitch.” I took the advice to heart and tried four or five different business ideas over the months. Given each one a shot for two or three months, mix in a little bit of freelance work so I could continue scraping by and paying the bills, and repeat the process.
Eventually, I found “something that came easily” and I was able to focus on building one business rather than trying to find an idea. In other words, I was able to simplify.
It was undoubtedly the first thing I discovered about figuring out what to focus on. If you want to master and understand the core fundamentals of a task you may, paradoxically, need to start by trying many different things, and when you get a sense of something what comes more easily to you set yourself up for success. It is much easier to focus on something that’s working than struggle along with something what is not.
As it’s rightly said by Mr. Colin R. Davis “The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.”
The writer is a social activist based in Islamabad.
From our Print Edition
